A Quilt for My Son Alex

Alex is a 6 year old boy who loves dinosaurs, trains, cars and construction trucks and machinery.  A couple of months ago I was at a local fabric store when I came across this Construction Scene  fabric.  Although I had no intentions of buying fabric to create a quilt that day, that is what I ended up doing.  I have created little baby blankets in the past, but never actually created a quilt, especially one large enough to fit a twin size bed.

While at the store, I thought to myself  "I can do this."  I have friends who quilt and I am sure they will help me with this project.  So, I took a leap of faith (believe in myself) that I could create a special quilt for Alex.  

 My friend Amy loaned me some quilting books and more importantly, showed me features my sewing machine has that I was not aware of....like the fact that my sewing machine has the ability to lower the feed dogs and that my machine came with free motion quilting foot and a walking foot! 

And...

My friend Kelli invited me to join her this December when her church group had their monthly quilting get together.  The ladies were full of encouragement and gave me great advise on how to proceed with the quilting...especially the free style motion quilting.  

So, I basically jumped in and worked many days and nights to create this quilt for Alex.  My first quilt.

Alex loved his quilt and was surprised on Christmas Day.    I can't get a picture of the entire quilt (due to its size), so I have pictures of showing portions of the quilt.  The center panel is what started this, an entire construction scene including a food truck...which Alex loves (we watch a lot  of food network shows and the food trucks show is one of Alex's favorite).

A Christmas Eve Tradition

Baking and decorating a gingerbread house has been an annual tradition for my family since Christmas 1997...the year my daughter Laura was born.  Like the sugar cookies, I had decorated gingerbread houses since I was a teenager, on and off.  However, this has now become an annual tradition for my family.  We all add our decorative touches and over the years, our goal is to make each year's gingerbread house a little different from the prior years.  We all decorate our own gingerbread boy or girl since it represents us.

This is the Wagner Gingerbread House for Christmas 2010:

Laura decided to create snowmen in front of the gingerbread  house...probably because we have an assortment of snowmen decorating the front of our house.

L

 Alex was also very creative this year.  He created many toys for the gingerbread house.  I decorated the trees and Alex added toys like a toy train circling the train. Other toys he created was a sled and a truck.

 Gingerbread decorating the Christmas Tree on the back of the Gingerbread House represents David.  Alex has a candy cane smile and is surrounded by toys, (all created by him...so creative!)

In the back of the Gingerbread house is "David" and "Alex"

 Laura decorated the side of the house with crushed cany canes and added a little candy cane bow to her gingerbread girl "Laura."

 "Isabel" by the front door of the house.  I love ruffles so my gingerbread girl has a ruffled skirt.  Laura did a fantastic job with "Laura's" swirl skirt...again, very proud of my kids creativity.

A bird eye view of our gingerbread home...

Christmas Sugar Cookies - Our Family Tradition

After David and I  married, we  have created our own family traditions.  After our daughter Laura was born, more Christmas traditions were started.  When Laura was a toddler, I started an annual tradition of decorating sugar cookies.  I had decorated sugar cookies, on and off for many years prior but it has now been an annual tradition for us for over 10 years.    Ten years ago, I decorated most of the cookies.  Now, I only decorate a few cookies while Laura (age 13), David and Alex (6 year old son) decorate most of the cookies and I am more of a facilitator. I love providing this experience for my family...it is our family tradition, one I hope my kids will continue with their own families.

This year, we were able to share this experience with Sophie (age 14).  She helped us bake and decorate the sugar cookies.  Sophie did great and we all had a great time and now Sophie has many cookies to share with her family. 

Laura's Cookies:

 Isabek, Alex and David's Cookies

 David's Sugar Cookies:

 Alex's Sugar Cookies:

 Sophie's Sugar Cookies

Turquoise, Green and Ivory Felted Wool Scarf - Another Christmas Gift

This scarf is a Christmas Gift to a dear friend in San Antonio.  Like all the scarfs I recently created, I found them an enjoyable experience.  Especially after I realized I like created the finished edge which gives it a scallop like finish.

Blue, Grey and Green Felted Wool Scraf

This is a scarf I cut about a year ago and then put it away in a ziploc bag.  Like many of my projects, I start but I don't always complete.  So, a year later, motivated by an upcoming craft fair I finally completed it.  It's a good thing I took pictures of all my new scarfs before the craft show because this one sold at the Bear Creek Craft Fair.  I really had a lot of fun creating the small rosette pin.

Another Felted Wool Scarf - A Christmas Gift

Since my mom does not have a computer at home she does not get to see my blog posting....unless my sister shows her the blog.  So, Gaby...don't show this to mom.  I hope my mom likes it, it's one of her Christmas gifts this year.  Like me, my mom loves flowers...especially roses.  I see a rose, I think of my mom, always. So I created a more simple type of rosette, grouped them in a cluster of three for this pin that I attached to the scarf.

Using Embroidered Wool Sweaters to create a Felted Wool Handbag

Last February, if memory serves that it was February, Staci and I went to our local thrift shop which was having a 99 cent sale on all their sweaters.  Of course, Staci and I had to go....even though we both already had plenty of wool sweaters to felt.  But a bargain is a bargain.  This past February I was in search of more unique wool sweaters and the black wool sweater with embroidered flowers was definitely one of them.  Since it was a cardigan style sweater, I can only use it in a handbag if I use more of a quilt style pattern.   Each side of the handbag is the same.  

I am not sure what I will do with this one, perhaps put in on Etsy or a gift?  Not sure.  I need to start working on packaging all of my Christmas gifts to my family and friends...many spread out across Texas in El Paso, Houston, San Antonio and Austin.  Got to get busy shipping all of our gifts.

Black and Purple Snowflake Tote

I created this tote for someone who also like purple, like me.  This will be shipped to Houston sometime next week as a Christmas gift.  Hopefully she will like it.

Felted Wool Purple Flowers and Butterfly Tote and Scarf

I like creating new felted wool totes and scarfs.  Since I love purple and butterflies, this is one of my favorites.  It's a simple design.

 Applique butterfly ...

 

 The scarf was fun, I liked using the same butterfly applique.  I sold the scarf at the Bear Creek Craft show so now I am glad I took pictures of all my scarfs before the craft show.

 

Bear Creek High School Craft Show

Staci and I had a fantastic experience at the craft show this last Saturday.  We had fun and were very happy with our sales.  Here are some pictures of our booth. 

Staci's Felted Wool Scarfs

Isabel's Felted Wool Scarfs

 I love this Gingerbread Paper cutouts Staci had at the craft fair...I was not the only one!